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Marriott Bonvoy

How We Booked Our Maldives Trip With Miles And Points

We redeemed miles and points and paid less than $2,400 for our Maldives flights and hotel (over $23,000 value)

The Ultimate Peru Itinerary: Machu Picchu, Huacachina, Paracas, and Lima

How we made the most of 5 nights in Peru

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STOKED ⛷️Vacasa is a vacation rental booking

STOKED

⛷️Vacasa is a vacation rental booking platform similar to VRBO and AirBNB. You can use Wyndham points to book Vacasa rentals!
⛷️ I have never used Wyndham points. I had 0 Wyndham points, but you don’t need Wyndham points because certain 💳 points transfer to Wyndham.
⛷️The redemption pricing model is simple. It’s 15k points per night per bedroom.
⛷️Lex and I each booked a room for 15k per night. After taxes and fees, the rooms we booked would have been over $400/night, so this is a great value. Our rooms were in a hotel steps away from the lifts!
⛷️ If you have a card that earns Capital One Venture miles or Citi Thank You points, you might already have the points needed for this!
If not, the welcome bonus on CO Venture or Venture X is enough to book 5 nights this way (AF is $95 on COV)
🎿a few things to note:
-Not everything you see on Vacasa will be bookable on points and unfortunately the only way to know is to call.
-What I’ve found is that if a property is available for the dates you want, and the average rate for your stay dates is under $350/night per bedroom before taxes/fees, you should be good to go (so for 2BR it’s $700)
-make a list of properties on Vacasa that you think will work prior to calling
-If the property you would like to book is available, Capital One points transfer immediately to Wyndham.
⛷️More details on my story highlights!

#awardtravel #milesandpoints #pointsandmiles #capitaloneventure #capitaloneventurex #vacasa #crestedbutte

Nailed it 😂 #crestedbutte #crestedbuttecolorado

Nailed it 😂 #crestedbutte #crestedbuttecolorado #skitrip

Spring Break 2023 in Crested Butte with the best f

Spring Break 2023 in Crested Butte with the best friends! CB is getting buried in snow this year and it made for some incredible skiing ❄️
🎿
Skiing is expensive, but it’s something our family really enjoys. While there aren’t any great ways to book lift tickets, etc. on miles/points, you can certainly cover lodging and/or flights. Obviously passes such as Epic or Ikon also save money if you go enough, but again, no great ways on points unless you’re using a cash-back type rewards currency (We don’t like cash-back because our main use for points is on international business class flights and 💳 that earn transferable airline miles are better for that) Hyatt has some excellent ski properties to book w points, but we did something new this year!
⛷️
We ended up using Wyndham points transferred from Capital One Venture to book a suite through Vacasa in CB. This is a great way to book lodging on points for ski trips. Our suite in CB was actually in a hotel in a great location just steps from the lifts, but some Vacasa rentals are condos or houses. Redemption pricing depends on the # of bedrooms(a suite is considered 1 bedroom) and it’s 15k/night per BR. Our total was 15k/night and the paid rate would have been around $400/night after fees. Back to the cash-back thing: I just want to point out that a $400 room with most cash back 💳 means you would need 40k points per night. There are no fees when you book Vacasa w Wyndham points. Our friends also booked a room at the same hotel this exact same way. For CB, it worked out best for each of us to book a room at this hotel, but we were also looking at houses in other ski destinations. It gets kind of interesting when it comes to houses, bc we found that there would be a 2 bedroom house, but then it would have a huge loft/bunk room for kids. Some of these houses could sleep 10-12 people, but the redemption price was still that of a 2 bedroom (30k per night). Capital One allows you to transfer points to friends so it’s easy to pool your points for a rental!
💳
You can read more about the booking process in my story highlight Ski Hack. This also works well for Vacasa in several other destinations such as Hawaii.

Justice for ANA awards and Ariana. Send it to Darr

Justice for ANA awards and Ariana. Send it to Darrell. #awardtravel #milesandpoints #pointsandmiles #vanderpumprules #sendittodarrell #virginatlantic #skyteamalliance #anajapan #luxurytravel

I’d rather be cold at the beach than cold in Tex

I’d rather be cold at the beach than cold in Texas!

✈️The downside to having family in vacation towns is that flights can be expensive. Flying on major holidays such as Christmas Eve/Christmas or New Year’s Day sometimes means lower fares, though, so in the past we’ve flown on those days. This year Southwest was offering 25% off for 12/24, 12/25, 12/31, or 1/1. We weren’t able to fly on these dates this year due to Ryan’s work schedule, but it’s definitely something to consider!

✈️Of course it’s always possible to book on points, but if you want to book flights during holidays, you’ll need to plan really far in advance. Depending on paid fares, it may or may not be a good value to use points on domestic flights.

Happy Holidays, everyone!! I’ll be back in 2023 with more educational award travel content!

#awardtravel #milesandpoints #pointsandmiles #30aflorida #siestakey #sarasotaflorida

Epcot is okay, and of course our kids love Disney

Epcot is okay, and of course our kids love Disney World. But I prefer the real thing, plus Disney on #milesandpoints isn’t as easy (or as valuable for your points) as it used to be 🇮🇹 🇫🇷 🇯🇵

#disneyworld #notadisneyadult #awardtravel

🌧🇹🇭Rainy season is June-October for most

🌧🇹🇭Rainy season is June-October for most of Thailand including the parts we visited. We were told that for the most part, in the south at least, it rarely rains all day every day. We had really good luck with the weather except for this one day. Honestly, the rain made the elephant experience magical and I’m not sure it would have felt the same if we had a clear sunny day.

🏝We had originally planned to do a boat trip to visit Phang Nga/James Bond Island but this was the one day of our trip that it rained heavily for most of the day. Our hotel concierge suggested visiting an elephant sanctuary instead of waiting to see if the weather would clear. It continued to rain so we’re glad we took her advice!

🐘Phuket Elephant Care sanctuary rescues elephants that have been abused and overworked. No riding, no chains, and no abuse. Elephants are free to roam the vast property (they only put them in an enclosure during feeding time for safety reasons), and they receive daily mud bath spa treatments from visitors.

#phuketthailand #phuketelephantsanctuary #rainyseason #elephantsantuary #jwmarriottphuket

✈️We finally got to fly on a Qatar a380 (this

For legal reasons this is a joke. He’s aware of

For legal reasons this is a joke. He’s aware of every credit card he opens and our credit scores are great

#awardtravel #milesandpoints #pointsandmiles #youwillbedealtwith

Of course you can always save on airfare with mile

Of course you can always save on airfare with miles and points but let’s talk about hotels⛷

🎿It’s not always easy to book hotel stays on points during ski season (at least not at a great value) so I definitely recommend planning ahead, but this can be a great value for certain types of points. World of Hyatt points almost always have the best value, so I always start by looking at my Hyatt options.

💳We stayed at Grand Hyatt Vail last spring break for 25k WOH points (some were transferred from blue gem 💎) per night. Room rates were were over $1500 so this is a great value! Using a cash back type card or a card that lets you redeem at a rate of 1 cent per point would mean you need 150,000 points to cover $1500. Transfer partners like Hyatt are your friend! We don’t value Marriott points as highly as Hyatt points, but the free night certificates that come with some Marriott co branded cards can be used at some great ski resort properties.

Also the photo w the Free Flights ski run was in #Angelfire. We didn’t use points for that one, but I had to include the photo for obvious reasons.

#awardtravel #milesandpoints #pointsandmiles #businessclasstravel #luxurytravel #vailcolorado #traveltips #luxuryforless #steamboatsprings #whistlerblackcomb #parkcity

Most of these hotel stays were also covered with m

Most of these hotel stays were also covered with miles and points. This is possible thanks to 💳 miles and points. Award travel isn’t for everyone, but if you’re responsible with credit cards, it’s a great way to step up your travel game. If you pay your cards on time, in full each month, you won’t pay interest and your credit score won’t suffer. Lots more info on my website!

#awardtravel #milesandpoints #pointsandmiles #businessclasstravel #luxurytravel #phiphiislands #traveltips #luxuryforless #perutravel #hawaiitraveltips #japantravel

Kind of cringe, kind of cute ♥️ We’ve stepp

Kind of cringe, kind of cute ♥️
We’ve stepped up our travel game big time since those first years, while spending less money on travel than we did back then! Our flights to and from Thailand were in business class and we paid less than the price of an economy flight thanks to #milesandpoints

#anniversarytrip #travelbloggers #traveltheworld

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